The Camden Journal

COCHRAN'S BOMB CANNON.

Washington, Monday, April 13.

The rumors of war have set some of our people about considering whether we are at all prepared for such an explosion. What is the result? All our forts prove to be almost entirely unsupplied with ordnance. We have plenty of forts, but precious little in them. Hence, some of the various improvers of fire arms, who have been dancing attendance upon the Government for a long time to no purpose, have been brought out by the tocsin, and are offering their plans. It is passing strange, but very true, that even the best of these meets with opposition among the official personages who ought to be foremost in giving encouragement to every improvement bearing marks of any thing like promise. I allude to Cochran's Patent Bomb Cannon. If a number of members of Congress had not seen its merits and taken it up vigorously and fearlessly, this great invention might never been heard of.—There is every likelihood, now, of its getting into general use and superseding all other ordnance. It has been tried twice here, in the presence of large assemblies. The last trial was on Saturday, April 11, at the Arsenal. But before I describe the triumphs of this last experiment, at which I myself was present, I will say a word about the powers to which the new invention makes claim.

First, then, it can fire sixteen shot in the time required for two of an ordinary cannon; some say more. It can be managed by six men; for the management of an ordinary cannon, eleven are required, so that each one saves the rations of five men. It has no recoil, hence does not require to be kept in its place by breeching. It is charged without either swab or ramrod.—The rapid firing does not heat it. Ordinary cannon must be cooled with vinegar and water after thirty discharges; but Cochran's has been found perfectly cool after one hundred shots in rapid succession. It has thrice the durability of ordinary cannon. All guns first fail at the breech, where the charge first ignites and the ball starts; but as Cochran's is constructed with a three chambered revolving breech, of course it must be of thrice the durability of those now in use.

It has been observed by some of the members of Congress who have witnessed experiments, that a single steamer with two sixty-four pounders constructed on Cochran's plan, might destroy any line of battle ship. None of the latter carry heavier metal than the forty-two pounder, and while these were under the act of being loaded, an unbroken stream of fire would be pouring in upon the line of battle ship like re-iterated thunder bolts so that nothing could save her from sinking. The steamer, too, being smaller in size, would be less exposed, although so much larger in power. The advantages from increased celerity would equally attend the use of Cochran's gun in fortresses. "For a garrison gun," says a letter of General Waddy Thompson, Chairman of the Military Committee,—" there cannot be a doubt about it." " I regard it as beyond measure," observes he in another place," the greatest improvement in the way of fire arms that I have seen."

On Saturday last, the attendance at the Arsenal was very numerous. A great number of Senators and Representatives appeared. The experiments were thoroughly successful. The first thirty two discharges were made within four minutes. In the next experiment, seventeen discharges were made in two minutes and twenty seconds. In the third, there were eight within the minute. In the fourth, there were three in a third of a minute.